The event was inaugurated on 9 March 1935, when Head Play defeated Top Row and Ladysman on a muddy track by 2 lengths in a time of 1:514⁄5 before a crowd of 45,000 on the closing day of Santa Anita meeting.
[5] The San Juan Capistrano is run around four turns, and begins at the top of Santa Anita's downhill chute, normally used for 6+1⁄2-furlong sprint races.
After a brief straight run, there is a gentle turn to the left until the horses cross the dirt course and enter the main turf oval.
In 2016 the Santa Anita's downhill chute was under repair, and the race was run on the flat turf oval, at 1+7⁄8 miles.
Since 2007, the winner of the San Juan Capistrano has received ballot-free entry into Australia's greatest horse race and the staying championship of the world, the Melbourne Cup.
[9] The March 12, 1966, edition of the San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap was seen by 60,792 fans, the largest crowd of the season, who turned out to say farewell to retiring U.S.
Without ever using the whip as he always did, Longden guided Canadian bred George Royal from fifteen lengths back in last place to a photo-finish win.